Edelweiss Asset Management Ltd. outperformed its peers even as Indian benchmark indices fell the most in 11 months amid the coronavirus outbreak and weak demand.
The portfolio manager returned 2.98 percent in February when the average return for the top 60 portfolio managers covered by BloombergQuint fell 3.5 percent during the month compared to a 6 percent fall in the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex.
Edelweiss Asset Management manages portfolios under Edelweiss Focused Small Cap Fund, Edelweiss Rubik Equity Portfolio, Edelweiss Asset Allocation and Edelweiss Special Opportunities Fund.
While the Focused Small Cap Fund and Rubik Equity Portfolio saw erosion in investor wealth in February, the Asset Allocation Fund—which is heavily tilted towards debt—returned gains. Its weighted average return stood at 2.96 percent. At the end of February, the Asset Allocation Fund had close to Rs 437 crore invested in liquid and credit-risk schemes of mutual fund and a fall in yields aided gains.
The outperformance came as blue-chip and midcap stocks saw a selloff in February. The S&P BSE Sensex fell 6 percent while the Nifty 50 tumbled 6.4 percent amid global coronavirus outbreak. The Nifty Midcap 100 wiped out all gains of FY20.
Only five portfolio managers returned gains during the month. Of the 60 portfolio managers tracked by BloombergQuint, 10 underperformed the Sensex.
Here is how the top portfolio managers performed: